Live stream preview

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Watch this video and more on OVID.tv

Start your free trial

Already subscribed? Sign in

The Secret Life of Your Clothes

Plastics & Pollution • 59m

Directed by Andy Wells • Documentary • 2016 • 59 minutes

Each year, we give thousands of tons of our unwanted clothes to charity. But where do they actually go? It turns out most are exported to Africa. And even though we have given them away for free, our castoffs have created a multimillion-dollar industry and some of the world's poorest people pay good money to buy them.

In this revealing film, charismatic paralympian Ade Adepitan tells the fascinating story of the afterlife of our clothes. He follows the trail to Ghana, the biggest importer of our castoffs where thousands of tons of our old clothes arrive every week. Ade meets the people who make a living from our old clothes, from wholesalers and markets traders to the importers raking in more than the average yearly wage in a single day!

But not everyone is profiting. With cheaply made western clothes flooding the market, the local textile industry has been decimated. And the deluge of our clothes isn't just destroying jobs; it has an effect on Ghanaian culture. Western outfits are fast replacing traditional garb.

Tags
ade adepitan, africa, african studies, anthropology and archaeology, area studies, bullfrog films, business, castoff clothes, charity, consumers, cultural anthropology, destroying jobs, development, disposable fashion, doc, econjustice, economic anthropology, economic geography, economics, environment, expository, far eastern fakes, fast fashion, geography, ghana, ghanaian culture, ghanaian fashion, globalization, human geography, importers, informal sector, kente cloth, kumasi, labor and economics, local economies, local textile industry, marketers, ovid, ovid_ca, psychology and mental health, retail sector, s_0055, s_0065, s_0081, s_0082, s_0085, s_0126, s_0149, s_0180, s_0260, s_0263, s_0274, s_0343, s_0447, s_0459, s_0601, s_0607, s_0636, sectors, social psychology, sociology, sub-saharan africa, sustainability, textiles sector, the secret life of your clothes, thrift stores, title_nopqrs, title_s, trade, traditional clothing, western clothes flooding market, wholesalers, world regions

Up Next in Plastics & Pollution

  • Racing To Zero
    55:05
    Racing To Zero

    Racing To Zero

    Directed by Christopher Beaver • Documentary • 2015 • 55 minutes

    Only one third of the waste in the United States is recycled or composted. Why? Industry, through its practice of planned obsolescence, plays a major role; our lives are almost totally dependent on unrecyclable petroleum products. ...

  • Plane Truths
    32:54
    Plane Truths

    Plane Truths

    Directed by Melissa Young and Mark Dworkin • Documentary • 2018 • 33 minutes

    The recent expansion of Navy training activities in the Northwest has many local residents concerned. Will more of our communities become collateral damage?
    Community members on Whidbey Island, the San Juans, and the Ol...

  • Oil and Water
    1:18:04
    Oil and Water

    Oil and Water

    Directed by Francine Strickwerda and Laurel Spellman Smith • Documentary • 2014 • 78 minutes

    OIL & WATER is the coming of age story of two boys as they each confront one of the world's worst toxic disasters, the prolonged contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon by Texaco and other oil compani...

×